"What you saw tonight was what we call 'stopping the bleeding,"' [Kevin Garnett] said after the Celtics beat Chicago 107-82 on Friday to stop their losing before it became a streak . . . "The loss to Detroit left a bad taste in our mouths," said [Paul] Pierce, who joined Garnett on the bench for the fourth quarter. "It didn't matter who we played tonight, we were going to come out and take it to them. It didn't matter who was in the building."

This game reminds me of the Irish epic, the Cattle-Raid of Cooley, where great Celtic heroes battle after the theft of a prized bull. Like the story, the Celtic champions displayed their expert skills throughout the match, but unlike the story, nobody gives a damn about any of the Bulls. And my father said studying ancient Irish literature was a waste of time and money. Let this be a lesson to you that even if you fail out of your pre-med program, you can still get paid in thimbles of whiskey for assistant editing a sports blog if you study the classic texts of Western Civilization.

"You hope for more," [Bulls] coach Scott Skiles said, adding that he would look at the tape to make sure his team didn't give up. "It just seemed like we gave in to it a little bit. And against a team like that they are going to sense that, (and) you're going to be in trouble."

I hope for more too when I watch tapes where people succumb without much of a fight. The near-strangulation porn industry isn't what it used to be. -KD